Mighty and Morphin'
by Rem Farr
Summary: A new take on the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers story. Set in modern times, a group of teenagers deals with conflicting personal lives while trying to save the world from forces beyond the stars. Rated T for language and alcohol.
1. When We Were Heroes

I

When We Were Heroes

Lights up. Crowd silent. Five points ahead. Four seconds left.

But seconds were becoming minutes for Billy. The winter air was affecting everyone in the bleachers. The orange and purple clad fans of the Angel Grove Seraph's football team were huddled up trying their best to stay warm while the battle for the playoff advancement lingered nine yards in front of the goal line. No high school game had been as intense since the start of the season. Though the crowd teetered on the edge of becoming Popsicle clusters, the players out in the field dribbled in sweat. It could have been a sauna or a tundra; climate meant absolutely nothing to Billy. Under the cold night sky and illuminated by enormous stadium lights, Billy was absolutely focused. Or so it seemed.

Billy hunched over, watching the opposing center in front of him. If one could read through his dirt and grass-stained jersey, "CRANSTON 40" would be the visible text on his back. Being his fourth and final year as one of Angel Grove Seraphs' defensive tackles, he refused to let Winston High destroy his chances at the playoffs by gaining nine yards on a fourth down in mere seconds before game's end. At age eighteen, 260 pounds, and a height that would put him eye-to-eye with Arnold Schwarzenegger, he cast fair-sized shadows over most of his classmates. He had a lot at stake on these nine yards: a nightmarish spring and summer of eating and working out, a chance of gaining credibility among the higher ups, and most of all, the enamor of a girl.

Somewhere among the freezing crowd of orange and purple masses, nestled in with her fellow members of the Angel Grove dance line was a little freshman girl who had taken an innocent attachment to Billy. He couldn't see her, but he knew she was there. He knew she would be huddled up with her sister dance line members, frosting from the weather but dedicatedly watching him. Only him. She might have been whispering Bill's name to herself over and over, like a spell of good luck.

The cold air had gradually flushed Kimberly Hart's pale cheeks into a rosy pink. The incredibly tiny brown-haired freshman was one of two skinny dance line girls sharing a giant purple blanket embroidered with orange wings and the gigantic letters "A.G.". The two of them huddled so close together under the blanket that they humorously resembled a life-sized pair of frozen, fuzzy chimichangas. Dwarfed in her school-spirited blanket-tortilla by her much taller dance mentor, Aisha, Kimberly stared through the frozen air at the lineup directly in front of her. Being on the very front row with the rest of Angel Grove's band behind her, she had the perfect view of her knight-in-grass-stained-armor, and even though the cold kept her voice quiet, she dutifully and repeatedly mouthed the name of the player sporting the 40 on his back.

With arms tightly wrapped around the small girl who the dance line had dubbed "Freshman of the Year", Aisha was focusing on jersey number 19, "TAYLOR". Standing behind the defensive line, the Angel Grove safety, Zack Taylor, studied Winston High's quarterback. Whereas Billy was big, white, and lumbering, Zack was skinny, black, and quick like a dart, and whereas Billy was secretly trying to win over a girl, Zack was desperately trying to keep his. Zack and Aisha had been steadily dating for seven months, and the sophomore wasn't going to disappoint the only girl who could keep up with him at break dancing. However, showing off to his girlfriend wasn't the only issue on Zack's mind. A fellow teammate, Eugene "Skull" Malkovitch, was warming up Angel Grove's benches and itching for Zack to make a mistake. The punk, Jewish junior had never really liked Zack ever since Zack proved to be a better safety, and the last thing that Zack needed was for Skull to find any more reasons to get his old position back.

"Down!" The center called. Zack noticed the quarterback ever so slightly glance at the right wide receiver. Target acquired. "Set!" Billy eyed his fellow defensive tackle, aptly nicknamed "The Incredible Bulk", and felt a bit more confident being reminded that a man sixty pounds larger and six inches taller than himself was going to be charging through the guards with him. "Hut!"

Instantly, the anxious calm of the stadium was obliterated by an uproar of opposing fans' voices.

The defensive and offensive lines charged, slamming together in a rumbling, echoing force of raw determination. The ball flew to Winston High's quarterback and upon receiving, he immediately surveyed for possible openings.

Within seconds, Billy had locked with an offensive guard. To his left, Bulk and his ox-like girth were giving a guard and a tight end more than enough opposition. The mass of a man bellowed like a dragon, slowly but surely giving into the pressure of the two offensive linemen's onslaught. The Winston High offensive line was smart. They knew that not a single one of their guys could hold off Bulk in a one-on-one struggle, and always having to sacrifice two men for only one of Angel Grove's had been costing them plenty throughout the earlier quarters. Still, the only alternative for them would have been to put only one guard on Bulk, which would have been a sore decision for any team who didn't want their players steamrolled.

Zack saw the right wide receiver take off and immediately go under cover of Angel Grove's cornerback. He remembered the quarterback's head twitch: the glance towards the receiver. Zack left no clue underestimated, so he joined the Angel Grove cornerback in covering the receiver.

The buzzer echoed. This was it. No more plays. Billy continued wrestling with the guard but found himself being shoved further back. His feet were slowly slipping, and out of his peripherals he saw that Bulk was taking what could have been his fiftieth fall for the night as the two Milton High players overtook the jersey-clad elephant. Billy couldn't let the quarterback make a pass. He had to get through the guard. Yes, there was always the chance of an interception, or an incomplete, or the targeted receiver simply not making it into the end zone, but Billy had a girl to impress. A girl who in only eleven weeks of school ended up thinking the world of him but who hadn't so much as hinted at romantic interest. She _had_ to see him be the one to secure the win. He needed all of the dumb, pathetic, macho victories that under social bureaucracy would make the sweet young and innocent girl fall in love with him. He wanted her. He needed her. It wasn't sensual lust. The two of them could be celibate all the way until their tenth year of marriage for all he cared. For once, he just wanted a cute and nice girl in his life.

And then he heard it. He never knew how, but somewhere in the cacophony of noise around him he heard it.

"Come on, Billy!" Kimberly, wrapped up with Aisha, was hopping up and down with anxiety. Aisha was giving similar encouragement to Zack, albeit a bit louder and with more profanity.

If Billy was Popeye, then Kimberly was his spinach. With a furious heave, Billy lunged to his left and shoved the guard towards his right. He ended up slipping around and tripping the guard in the process. With his path open, he roared towards the quarterback. Zack had chosen correctly when chasing his wide receiver. The receiver was far too quick for Angel Grove's cornerback, who had already started to trail behind, but Zack was keeping up, stretching his legs as long as he could to keep pace with the receiver. Billy closed. The quarterback had to pass now or risk botching the play due a hormone-driven defensive lineman. So he threw.

His only chance was the wide receiver. Zack was sprinting as fast as possible, but the receiver was just inches faster. The quarterback found his target. As the ball left his hand, Billy lunged into the air, hands outstretched. Time slowed down even slower than before. What had currently been a six-second play seemed to drag on for minutes. Billy reached, fingers grasping for a small chance of swatting the ball out of the sky.

He felt it. He felt the ball. It wasn't much, but the very tips of his fingers scraped against the coarse lemon-shaped missile. Billy, airborne, crashed into the quarterback and the two of them tumbled to the wet ground. He'd done his job.

Zack was just behind the wide receiver. There was just enough room out of Zack's reach for the wide receiver to have caught the incoming pass. Unfortunately for the receiver, Billy's encounter with the ball had altered its trajectory. In other words, it was making a head on drive towards Zack. Seeing his chance, Zack opened up his arms and within a split second, claimed an interception, a touchback, and a win for Angel Grove.

"Oh my God did you see that?" Aisha jumped upward, the roaring crowd around her drowning out any chance that her words reached anyone not nearby.

"We're going to the playoffs! I can't believe it we're going to the playoffs!" Kimberly squealed with delight, the tip of her French braid bouncing sporadically against her back.

"They're already on the field." Sure enough to Aisha's words, the fans of Angel Grove were stampeding out of the bleachers in a frenzy. Left and right teenagers, parents, faculty, and everyone else who had shown up supporting the home team stormed onto the football field, joining their team in celebration.

"Can they do that?"

"Hell yes! And so can we. Come on. There's a guy I gotta throw my arms around." Aisha dropped down to the front guard rail of the bleachers, forcing her blanket-Siamese twin Kimberly to follow.

"Hold on. We're wrapped up." Kimberly fidgeted as Aisha tried to slide through the front railing onto the football field.

"Well hurry."

After scooting up next to Aisha, the duo slid out together onto the cold, wet track that encircled the grassy football field. All around them, Angel Grove fans were running out to the rhythmic beats and celebratory anthems of the marching band that the girls had just left behind. Aisha, still oddly wrapped up with Kimberly, dashed with a penguin-like movement towards the hooting and hollering football team.

"Hey, I'm little! Remember?" Kimberly bounced along behind Aisha, trying to keep up with her taller blanket-companion.

Congratulating teammates swarmed around Billy. Every second he was being shaken on the shoulder, patted on the back, man-hugged, or high-fived for knocking the ball off course. "Zack! Where you at, man?" He shouted over his everyone.

In another swarm of victorious players and cheering high schoolers, Zack was dealing with the same praise. He even still had the football. "Where's my assistant?" Zack, smiling, tried peering through the cluster of praising Angel Grovers to find the man responsible for half of the victory. "Hey! Get over here!"

After sharking his way through the crowd, Billy finally stumbled into Zack. The two of them threw their arms around each other, Billy giving Zack a huge lift off of the ground in the process. "Dude, that was the tightest shit ever!" Zack screamed.

"I thought they'd make the down but you snatched it out of the air, man!" Billy laughed. "You were like, "Nope, mine!" and we got it man, we got it! We're going to the playoffs!"

"Dude if you didn't knock the ball it'd gone straight to the receiver." Zack wriggled out of Billy's bear hug and landed back down on the grass. "Looks like if Skull wants wide receiver back he ain't getting it from me."

"I hear you on that." Billy was glad to see that a lot of the players had started to dissipate into other, smaller assemblies. "Hey, you know what this means, right?"

"What's that?"

"Victory party at Jason's."

Zack took a beat. "That's right! I totally forgot about it. Will it be at the corn field or at the bluffs?"

"He said at the field. Signs'd be up showing where to park and stuff." Billy had many fond memories from parties in Jason's parents' corn field, though he'd have had a lot more if Jason never supplied alcohol.

"Nice." Zack smiled. "Though I don't think I'll go too crazy tonight."

"Dude, it's our victory party. I know I'm going nuts. Did he tell you he was trying to get a keg?"

"A keg? That'll last Bulk for, what, ten minutes?"

Billy couldn't help chuckling. "Yeah, that's why we gotta get there early."

"Well let's not get too crazy. This is one night I definitely don't want to forget." Zack glanced around at all of the huddled up Angel Grove devotees conversing in purple and orange flocks. "Well isn't that just adorable."

Waddling towards them were none other than their personal cheerleaders. Aisha was scuttling quickly with Kimberly hopping along behind her. It was a ridiculous sight, but the smiles on their faces made them look like excited five year-olds on Christmas Eve.

"You two cold?" Zack joked.

"Shut up and hug me!" Aisha, arms nestled warmly beneath the blanket, jumped into Zack. He caught her just in time, still holding the football.

"You guys look like a pair of conjoined egg rolls." Billy hugged the other half of the blanket, laughing at the sight of Kimberly's small head poking out from the warm school-spirited blanket.

"Wear these skimpy dance uniforms and see how you like it." Kimberly stretched her arms around Billy's chest in hug. Her hands barely reached each other around on his back. "Good lord you're warm!" She tightened her grip, trying to get closer to his body heat. "Can you two get a room?"

Zack and Aisha were celebrating in a more lip-oriented fashion. Zack wrapped his arms around her waist the best he could with the blanket in the way. "You know Jason's having something at his place, right."

"Will there be a giant bonfire?"

"Always is. How 'bout we continue this when we meet up over there?" He winked at her. "Think you can be ready in an hour?"

"Well since you put it so sweetly, come get me at 10:30." She said. "I gotta have time to defrost my hair. I swear these uniforms might as well be scraps— Hey!"

An instant waft of cold suddenly caught Aisha, and she knew why. Billy was running away and laughing. In his arms was a purple and orange bundle with Kimberly's head laughing out of one end. "Later!" It shouted at her in between laughs.

"That's _my_ blanket!" Aisha, unwrapped and sporting the skimpy, sequence-covered dance line outfit, took off after the thieves. "It's too damn cold for this crap, Kim!"

"Go get 'em." Zack called after her, laughing at the ruse. "Show them no mercy!"

"Shut up!" She yelled back over her shoulder.

Zack took a deep breath. "God I love her."

People were already starting to disperse. The game was done, meaning traffic would soon start getting congested in the parking lot. Zack stood on the field amidst everyone else, watching his girlfriend chase down the duo that had robbed her of her warmth. Seven months and they were still going steady. For a sophomore dating a girl one grade above him, Zack hadn't done too badly.

He fiddled around with the football and glanced up into the night sky just in time to see a shooting star rocket across. Never being one to pass up an opportunity, he made a wish. _Keep us going. Keep it fresh, fun, and exciting. If anything, just keep us together._ Zack smiled to himself at his cheesy wish, but deep down it was really the only thing he thought worth asking for. He'd had an amazing reputation with the football team, a close group of friends spanning all grades, and a girlfriend who knew all the lyrics to the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There" even when drunk and stumbling all over the place. Hopefully, she'd be just as entertaining at Jason's celebratory party this time around.

Like all shooting stars, the one he saw faded out of sight. Unlike all shooting stars, it altered course out of Earth's gravity and arched towards the moon.


	2. Evan vs Soju

**II**

**Evan vs. Soju**

The little radio was blaring out Dion DiMucci's "Runaround Sue", a song that Jason always welcomed. Out in the cold November night he had just finished listening to Angel Grove win its spot in the AAAA playoffs. Propped up in the bed of his dad's old and beat up Ford F-150 was a keg of beer he'd gotten hours earlier. Fortunately for him, the football game had attracted most traffic towards uptown Angel Grove, making the drive for the beer ten times easier than normal. Missing the actual game wasn't too big of a deal for him. He didn't care too much for football, but he was never one to turn down an opportunity for a party.

Everything was set. Out in the corn field clearing Jason had set up plenty of wood to get a bonfire started. As much as he wanted to light it for his own warmth, he decided to bear out the cold and save the wood for when people actually started to show up. Of course there were also the essentials: a beer pong table, Jell-O shots for the girls, and a table full of chips and snacks he'd snatched up from a local grocery. A five dollar cover charge from everybody had paid for it all.

"Any minute now." He said to himself. At school he'd told everyone that the party would start as soon as people could arrive after the game, but he knew the girls would take a while to get dressed into more party-oriented gear.

The radio station finished the Dion DiMucci hit and transferred over to "Aquarius" by The Fifth Dimension. Jason really enjoyed the older classics. Popular music didn't attract Jason too much mainly because of the drama that always followed pop artists. He found too many people judging music because of the artists' personalities and not the songs themselves.

Even though he willed himself not to light the bonfire, the cold was still getting to him. Sporting a pleather jacket and Levi jeans, he had nobody to blame but himself. Still, he wasn't dressed for freezing temperatures; he was dressed for freezing temperatures accompanied by a huge ass bonfire.

_Dammit. When the first person shows up, I'm breaking out the matches._ It had been only minutes since the radio announced how his friends Billy and Zack secured victory for Angel Grove. _It'll be forever before anyone shows up._

Not wanting to light the fire, Jason shuffled over to the passenger side of his dad's old truck. He opened the door and reached for a brown bag lying on the floor mat. He dug around inside of it and pulled out a black-labeled bottle with brown liquid inside. Good ol' Evan. Williams. It helped having a close family member working at a liquor store. He wouldn't have gotten the keg any other way. He unscrewed the cap and downed a quick shot straight from the bottle. The taste was sour enough to make anyone gag, but the warmth that it provided on the way down dramatically made up for the taste. He screwed the cap back on and stuck the bottle in the bed of the truck next to the ice cold keg. If he'd kept taking a shot each time he felt cold, he'd be passed out by the time the first car arrived. Just one couldn't hurt.

He placed his foot up on the back tire of the truck and hoisted himself into the truck's bed. Getting comfortable, he laid down with his head on the open bed door and sprawled his on the toolbox. It looked as if he was sitting down with his back against the truck's bed and his butt resting on the truck's toolbox. _The stars are too beautiful not to look at._ And it was true. Outside of Angel Grove's urban borders, the Scott farm proved a wonderful spot for gazing at the sky.

"Aquarius" drifted into "Let the Sunshine In" and Jason glanced over the thousands of stars, looking for the constellation the first song prophesized. Not being a big astronomy buff, he didn't know what it really looked like or if it was even out during this time of the year. _Billy would know. Guy's got a scholarship to University of New Mexico for this kind of stuff._ The moment called him back to earlier times when he and Billy were just ten years old. Jason would pick out which model rockets looked the coolest and Billy's parents would order them through the mail. Of course, Billy would put the complicated pieces together while Jason launched them off. _For such a big dude, you were always more of a brain. You were always destined for bigger things than Angel Grove. Not like me, buddy. You get to go off and explore the unknown while I get to stay home and harvest corn like all of the Jason Lee Scotts before me._

Just then Jason saw it: a brief but noticeable streak across the dark sky. He didn't remember the last time he'd seen a shooting star, but being a typical rural guy came with its fair share of superstitions. However, superstition also brought a fine sense of practicality. "I wish for someone to hurry up and get here." Then something odd happened. There was another shooting star, but this one curved strangely in the direction of the moon. "Well I'll be. Guess my wish will get a double dose of magical… magic."

Sure enough, his wish came true. From over the wall of corn stalks, there were the sounds of a car pulling up followed by the slamming of a door. Quickly, he slid out the back of his dad's truck and dug around in his jacket pocket for the small box of matches. "Welcome, welcome!" He called out to the mystery person. Outside of the clearing where at the designated parking area, he'd set up signs that pointed to the inner clearing of corn so that people knew exactly where in the forest of corn that the party was located.

"Is this Jason's party?" An unfamiliar girl's voice called out from the other side of the stalks.

"Yeah. Congrats, you're the first one here." He answered. "You know how to get in here?"

"I just follow this path, right? That's what Adam told me to do." She responded. "I was also told to look for a giant bonfire."

"Oh yeah. I decided to wait for more people to show up before getting the bonfire started. But yeah, just follow the path and you'll get in here. Sorry about the confusion. It's just that these corn stalks completely hide us from the road so cops and stuff can't see us, so it makes for a wonderful place to drink." He grabbed a bundle of newspaper meant for kindling.

He heard the crunching of footsteps coming from the path. Even though he wished for someone to show up, he didn't expect anyone to actually do so for the next twenty minutes or so. Regardless, it was still a reason to get the bonfire going and the great shooting star gods apparently found good favor in Jason, so he wasn't going to botch up his chances at getting warm.

"Hello. Are you Jason?" Jason turned around to see a girl who could only be described as a perfect ten.

She was gorgeous beyond all belief. Not a single one of her jet black hairs was out of place, and she was one of the best shaped girls Jason had ever seen. She wasn't too skinny, but her curves were spot on. He guessed her ethnicity at being half Asian and half European. She had an Asian girl's face and a white girl's eyes, which looked extremely bright and attentive. Her hair was long and straight with a streak of bleached blonde in her bangs adding a bit of spark to her appearance that would set off the bonfire if she got too close. On top off all that, she was dressed immaculately. Her long coat glistened bright white and was wrapped around her with what looked like a chrome-studded white belt. Jason felt very underdressed.

"Yeah. That'd be me." He answered, suddenly finding himself standing more upright.

"I'm Trini. Sorry that I'm early." She smiled apologetically.

"Oh, no. Don't worry." Jason assured. "You came into my corn just in time." _Came into my corn? What the hell, man?_ He wanted to punch himself right then and there.

"This is my first corn field party." She said, nervously. "We don't have corn fields in Korea. I didn't even know you had them this close to Angel Grove."

"That's all right. I'm always having new people out here." He assured. "So… you're from Korea?" Jason was never one for small talk.

"Yes. My dad was in the US Air Force and my mom worked at a bar in Kunsan City. They met up a few nights and, well… tada." She gestured at herself. "My mom immigrated here to live with my dad last summer."

"Wow, that's pretty neat. You said you knew Adam? Adam Park?"

"Yes. His mom's Korean also so we got to know each other really quickly. What can I say? Birds of a feather flock together." She snickered. "His Korean is horrible, though."

Jason burst out laughing. "I had no idea he spoke Korean."

"Exactly. He _thinks_ he does but," She shook her head. "It's all right. He's just trying to impress me. It's actually kind of adorable. You won't tell him I said that, will you?" Trini gave Jason a nervous smile that only made her prettier.

"No, no. It's safe with me. What, are you two dating or something?" The moment of truth.

"Oh no. He's too… well… Adam is Adam." She smiled again.

_Awesome!_ "Well, you speak perfect English. Better than some of the people born and raised here if you ask me." If Jason had never experienced an awkward moment before meeting Trini, he could certainly cross it off the list after tonight.

"Thank you."

The two of them were suddenly struck with an awkward bit of silence. Neither of them knew where to take the conversation. "Well, I'm gonna go ahead and get this fire going before I freeze. There's a keg in the back of that truck over there. Help yourself."

"Oh, that reminds me." Trini reached into one of her jacket pockets and pulled out a money clip full of bills. She pulled a five out of it. "Adam said you had a cover charge."

She approached Jason at the pile of wood in the center of the clearing. Closer up, Jason noticed she had a light yellow pair of suede boots with heals at least two inches high. Too hot. "That's okay." He responded. "First corn party is on the house." _Quit calling it a corn party!_

"Ah. Well, thanks." She put the bill back in the clip and pocketed it. Judging by the huge wad of cash, Jason guessed that she was carrying at least three-hundred dollars on her person.

"No problem. You might want to stand back. Those branches are covered in lighter fluid." Trini heeded Jason's words and stepped back a few feet, her boots crunching the dead corn stalks beneath her feet.

The pile of dead tree branches was resting in a small pit surrounded by cement blocks. A bundle of dried corn stalks had been stuffed under a section of the branches as starter fuel. Jason bunched the newspaper in with the dried stalks until it was secure. Once the newspaper was in place, he took a match from the box and struck it on the side where it ignited into a small flame. Within seconds, the newspaper caught fire.

"There. Give it a few and it should get pretty big." He stepped back next to Trini, staring at the burning paper. "Feel free to get some beer." He reminded her.

"Oh, no thanks."

"No problem. Plenty of people will show up who don't drink. I just… you know. Keeping the offer on the table." He assured her… horribly.

"No, I'm just not a big fan of beer. My mom learned how to make all sorts of drinks bartending so I got used to them. You could say I'm a bit pampered." She snickered.

"Hah, I wish my mom would make drinks for me." Jason's mom was about as anti-alcohol as Genghis Kahn was anti-I-don't-own-that. "What's the drinking age in Korea?"

"It's nineteen, but my mom's worked with alcohol most of her life so she doesn't see why it's such a big deal for a seventeen year old to have some."

The corn husks in the wood pile caught fire and the flames jumped to the lighter fluid-soaked branches, blazing over them. The fire jumped up a bit and slowly settled down to a smaller burn. It was a good-sized fire that, with more branches added, would be easily visible from the road.

"Well, I'm about to down another Evan Williams shot. Don't suppose you'd want one?" He turned to his dad's pickup.

"Eew, no. My dad drinks that stuff. It's too strong for me."

Jason reached into the bed of the pickup for the whiskey bottle and grabbed it by the neck. "Well dang. You're making me feel like an alcoholic what with drinking all by myself." He joked, uncapping the bottle.

"Then I'll join you." Trini sauntered up to the pickup while reaching into her bright white coat. She pulled out a metallic flask that reflected the fire so brightly it looked like flames were dancing in her hand.

"What's in there?" Jason noticed that the flask had some sort of Korean writing script written on it. "Something from your mom's bar?"

"It's called _soju_." She unscrewed the top of the pewter flask. "A native Korean drink. It's fermented from rice." She dug her hand into another one of her pockets and pulled out a plastic shot glass.

Jason's mind was blown. _This girl's like the Swiss-Army Knife of alcohol._ "Never heard of it." He held out his hand to inspect the flask.

"It's a very common drink in Korea." She handed the flask to him. "My mom convinced the liquor store that she started working at to stock it. Thanks to her, _The Vineyard_ has been getting a lot more Korean customers. That's a really good brand." She pointed at the flask in Jason's hand.

Jason sniffed the flask's spout. It smelled very similar to vodka. "Wait, you said that your mom works at _The Vineyard_?"

"Mm-hmm. She's been there for a couple of months. It's right where Fourth Street meets Kings-"

"I saw her!" The realization hit him. "My uncle works there, too. I got the keg from there. She's the really short one, isn't she?" _Or, I dunno, the Korean one? … Stupid._

"Yes!" Her eyes brightened in excitement. "Oh my god. Wait, don't tell me. Is it Austin?"

"Yep." Jason let out a laugh. "Yeah Uncle Austin's been working there for about five or six years. He's pretty much my hookup for booze. Oh, that reminds me. Your mom almost skinned him alive when she found out he was selling alcohol to an eighteen year old."

Trini started laughing so hard she couldn't talk straight. "That's ex-_actly_ like her! She's fine if I drink but if a high school kid comes in and tries to sneak away without showing his ID, she loses her mind. Oh, wow, did she start screaming away in Korean?"

"Yeah, I thought she was going to call the cops or something. He finally told her that I was family and that, you know, got her calmed down a bit." He laughed again.

They both sighed. The fact that they both had family members working at the same liquor store was a one in a million chance. Jason was so caught up in the situation that he didn't realize that he was still holding Trini's flask of _soju_.

"Well, are we gonna take a drink or keep talking about our crazy family?" She questioned.

"Oh, crap, yeah. Here." He offered the flask back to Trini.

"Well, where I'm from, it's typically impolite to pour your own _soju_." She teased.

Jason bit the hook. "Well, madam, would you kindly offer your glass. I would hate to be rude." He did his best to mimic an overly polite waiter.

"Oh, how gentlemanly of you." She held her shot glass out. It rested in her left palm with her right hand cradling it on the side.

"It would be my pleasure." He held out the open flask and started to pour.

"Oh, dear sir," She mocked. "I do believe you are supposed to use both hands to pour." The look of confusion on Jason's face was priceless.

"Another weird custom?"

"Yes."

He set his bottle of whiskey down and grasped the flask with both hands. It looked extremely tiny cupped in his calloused, worker's hands. "Is this right?"

"Yes."

"You sure I don't have to dance or something?"

She laughed at his remark. "No, no, there's no dancing. Just pour it and we'll drink."

Jason gingerly filled Trini's glass with the foreign liquid from the flask. He felt odd holding onto something as miniscule as a flask with both hands, but he would do whatever it took to impress someone as beautiful and interesting as the girl in front of him. Besides, she looked odd enough holding the tiny glass with both of her hands, too. He finished pouring the shot and screwed the cap back on, the wafts of the vodka-like smell drifting up to him.

"So is that it?" He eyed her.

"Well, you've gotta drink with me too, you know."

"Oh yeah, right." Jason pocketed the flask and grabbed his whiskey off of the ground. "Bottom's up?" He held his enormous bottle to her tiny shot.

"_Won-syat_." She responded.

Jason paused. "I don't know what that means, but okay."

Together, the two of them drew their drinks to their mouths and threw their heads back. Trini's _soju_ sloshed into her mouth and down her throat like water through a pipe, and Jason took two small gulps of his big bottle. He looked at her and saw that she had a smile so big it must've been hurting.

"What?" He asked.

"Your face!" She burst out laughing so hard that she had to kneel over. "You should—" She tried to speak. "You should've seen your…" Her words trailed off into more insane laughter. Jason didn't know what to make of the situation.

"What about my face?" He couldn't help but smile at Trini losing her composure.

"Y-you looked like you just tasted the worst thing in the world."

"Really now?" She was right. Taking two small gulps instead of one normal one definitely didn't make it any easier. "Heh, well personally I think that shot went to your head a bit faster than you thought."

"Oh, you don't even know." She snatched her _soju_ flask out of Jason's hand. "I haven't even gotten started yet."

"Fine then, go ahead." Jason gestured with his hands. "I'll go and pour you another."

"Nah, not this time." She spun the cap off with her thumb and filled her shot glass up to point that Jason thought it would spill over. "I'll do it myself." She stuck her tongue out at him. She had an unusual, classy way of being extremely goofy and proper at exactly the same time.

"Oh, this is most disrespectful! Filling your own glass?" Jason mocked. "You have disgraced my family… or something like that." He unscrewed his bottle. "Let's see just how far you _can_ go." He said, taking a step closer to her.

"All right little man. For every drink you take, I'll take one too." She stepped up to him. They were now face to face.

Without saying a word, Jason tossed the bottle back and took a swig. He licked his lips and pushed back the instinct to make a disgusted face. Trini "hmmph'd" and tossed back her shot, even taking time to gargle it before swallowing it. Knowing that continuing would be one of the worst decisions that he could ever make, Jason took another swig from his bottle. His stomach threatened to vomit it all back up, but there was no way he was going to puke all over a potential date. Plus, there was no way he'd lose to a girl in a drinking game.

Trini didn't pour another glass. She pocketed the shot glass and upended the flask over her open mouth. Jason saw a stream of _soju_ drizzle out of the flask's tip and into her mouth. She lowered the _soju_ and swallowed the mouthful of vodka-smelling alcohol. The elaborate gesture was amazing. Jason thought he'd finally found his female better in the world of drinking games. Suddenly, her mouth twitched. It was a very miniscule action, but it restored Jason's confidence that he could conquer this almost unworldly drinker.

"Let me get a cup of beer. I'll need a chaser for the next one." He turned back to the truck.

The alcohol was already affecting him. He wasn't smashed or anything, but his steps were a bit springier and more light-feeling. If anything, his stomach would be the one to give out before his brain would.

He grabbed a plastic cup and fished around for the tap. After pumping the keg a few times he started filling the cup with the beer he'd gotten from Trini's crazy mom at _The Vineyard._

Trini wailed out from behind him. "A shooting star!" Jason turned to see her pointing up into the sky.

"Really? I saw two earlier." He followed the direction of her finger.

"It was right over—oh look!"

They saw yet another one. Just like the pair Jason had seen earlier, the second one flew towards the direction of the moon.

"That's really weird." Jason said.

"What?"

"I saw two shooting stars earlier and they did the exact same thing." He kept looking up at the sky. "Now that I think about it, they were in the same spot. You don't think that, like, the moon's gravity is pulling them out of the Earth's atmosphere or something, do you?"

"I don't think so. The Earth has a much stronger gravitational pull than the moon." They both stood silent for a bit, focused on the sky. "Well, I bet NASA's got some explanation for it or something. It's probably something as simple—" Trini hiccupped.

It caught Jason's attention. "Still think you can out drink me? I know what hiccups mean." He grinned. "It means you're about to go _down_." He uncapped his Evan Williams bottle again.

"Please. I was downing this stuff back when you were still drinking Little Hugs." She taunted.

"Hey, Little Hugs were delicious!" Jason tossed back another swig of whiskey and immediately followed it up with a gulp of beer.

Trini responded with another gulp of her _soju_. She hiccupped immediately after swallowing it. Jason smiled. It was going to be a fun night.


End file.
